"I was horrified to come across so much inaccurate nonsense about Shincheonji in international media outlets”: New Religious Movements Scholar Speaks Out (COVID-19, May 2020)

Prominent human rights and religious freedoms organisations including the U.S Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), religious leaders and leading academics are speaking out against South Korean media's deplorable treatment of Shincheonji Church members in light of the recent deaths of two female congregation members who, in separate incidents, "fell out" of their apartment windows after experiencing long-term domestic abuse because of their religious affiliation. Shincheonji Church has now recorded some 7000 acts of forced leave of absence, discrimination and insult against its church members since the rise of domestic COVID-19 cases from February 18th 2020. Persecution has been fuelled almost entirely by 'fake news'. 

In a most recent report published by EIN Newswire, Dr. Massimo Introvigne, founder and managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR) who himself has studied Shincheonji Church, has highlighted his concerns about the victimisation of Shincheonji Church by Korean and international media outlets. Dr. Introvigne said, "I was horrified to come across so much inaccurate nonsense about Shincheonji in international media outlets." He confirmed that following the confirmed case of "Patient 31" on February 18th 2020, who is a 61-year-old female church member in Daegu, Shincheonji Church complied with government and health authorities and immediately "closed all its churches in the country.” In contrast to media allegations made from 18th February that Shincheonji Church had supplied incorrect data of its worldwide churches, members and affiliated buildings, the Korean deputy minister of Health, Kim Kang-lip himself said that the “discrepancies were minor and that Shincheonji had not been guilty of supplying incomplete or false data.”

Dr. Introvigne went on to label the absurd accusation that Shincheonji Church members regard themselves as immune to illness or refuse modern medicine or medical tests when needed by saying that such claims are "totally false". 

The reasons Dr. Introvigne cites for the blind acceptance of domestic news reports by international media outlets are rooted in the corruption of Protestant Christianity in Korea today. Protestant Church members have been flocking in large number to Shincheonji Church - as evidenced by last year's unprecedented growth of 103,764 graduates - and its leadership is embroiled in political scandal as they seek to secure votes from church members to further their political agenda. Dr. Introvigne concludes that established fundamentalist groups that have more political backing are using the pandemic as a pretext to up their campaign against Shincheonji Church and fundamentalist anti-cult Korean Protestants are engaged in shameful profiteering.

Indeed, a report just published by Human Rights Without Frontiers (HRWF) entitled “Coercive Change of Religion in South Korea” details over 1500 domestic cases of 'coercive conversion'; a practice in which parents kidnap and detain their adult child at the counsel of so-called "pastors" so that pastors can “deprogram” or “de-convert” them from what they view as a ‘cult.’ It is an amoral and criminal practice. Pastors affiliated to the Protestant Christian Council of Korea (CCK), who carry out such programmes, were convicted of 12,000 crimes that include forgery, embezzlement, assault and murder from 2008-2018. This is the reality of Protestant Christianity in South Korea today.

Shincheonji Church has published its statement in response to media allegations as follows:-

“This is our earnest request: please stop the cursing and hatred towards Shincheonji. And we ask some media outlets that are slandering and suppressing Shincheonji using unconfirmed information and fake news to stop immediately.”

Shincheonji Church's response to allegations in light of COVID-19 can be found here:-

http://enblog.shincheonji.kr/p/covid-19-fact-checker.html

http://enblog.shincheonji.kr/p/coivd19-response.html

Main Reference
Understanding Pandemic Monitoring Without Scapegoating: The Truth about Shincheonji (11/05/2020)▶https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/516679117/understanding-pandemic-monitoring-without-scapegoating-the-truth-about-shincheonji

News Publications
After the Coronavirus in South Korea: Intolerance Against Shincheonji (EIN Newswire 08/05/2020) ▶https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/516496839/after-the-coronavirus-in-south-korea-intolerance-against-shincheonji

Broadcasting Centres Raise Audience Ratings through 'Shincheonji Hatred'…“Enormous and Malicious Influence on National Progress” (Cheonji Daily 18/03/2020)
▶http://bit.ly/2UhbKQW
Translation▶http://noahbrown1984.blogspot.com/2020/03/cheonji-daily-broadcasting-centres.html

Controversy over Gyeonggi Provincial Government’s Response to COVID-19 as number of infected members from the established church is 2.4 times higher (Cheonji Daily 18/03/2020)
▶http://bit.ly/2U0Yf97
Translation▶http://noahbrown1984.blogspot.com/2020/03/cheonji-daily-controversy-over-gyeonggi.html

"Coronavirus and Shincheonji: Stopping the Witch Hunt" (02/03/2020) ▶https://www.cesnur.org/2020/shincheonji_appeal.htm

Coronavirus: USCIRF decries South Korea for blaming Shincheonji Church (Muslim Community Report 10/03/2020)▶http://bit.ly/2Qhpmdz

Four criticisms of 'Shincheonji Doctrine' brought to light… If you only believe in external sources, that’s a 'disgrace' (Cheonji Daily 04/03/2020) ▶https://bit.ly/2wGAslq
Translation▶http://noahbrown1984.blogspot.com/2020/03/four-criticisms-of-shincheonji-doctrine.html

IndependentFromBeliefs (March 2020)
▶https://bit.ly/2UbtaiW
▶https://bit.ly/3driPqX
▶https://bit.ly/2Uzo6DV
▶https://bit.ly/2Uc95Jt
▶https://bit.ly/2UcvxC4
▶https://bit.ly/2Udbaoj

International NGOs Warned the South Korean Human Rights Crisis in the Coronavirus Outbreaks (NAWE 16/03/2020)▶https://www.nawe.bi/International-NGOs-Warned-the-South-Korean-Human-Rights-Crisis-in-the.html

Lies regarding the Coronavirus about Shincheonji 신천지 (03/03/2020)
▶https://youtu.be/-uHGF1h6EHY

Prohibition of 'Hateful, Speculative and Distorted' Reporting Proposed under Natural Disasters Act (EDaily 17/03/2020)
▶http://bit.ly/39Y1Lqa ▶http://bit.ly/2UgfrGo
Translation▶http://noahbrown1984.blogspot.com/2020/03/prohibition-of-hateful-speculative-and.html

Prosecution investigates membership list provided by Shincheonji Church Headquarters: “No hidden members; they reported a true list” (Newsis News Agency 17/03/2020)
▶http://bit.ly/38UD0Kf ▶http://bit.ly/39XvrDY
Translation▶http://noahbrown1984.blogspot.com/2020/03/prosecution-investigates-membership.html

Quarantine Official: "Confirmed case of COVID-19 in Daegu had existed before ‘patient 31’" (Daum News 22/03/2020)
⇨https://bit.ly/2Qz1iDq

Quarantine Official: "Confirmed case of COVID-19 in Daegu had existed before ‘patient 31’" (Naver 22/03/2020)
⇨https://bit.ly/2Uvs28X

"Shincheonji didn't lie about membership figures." (The Korea Herald 17/03/2020)
▶http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20200317000667

White Paper on Shincheonji and Coronavirus
Massimo Introvigne, Founder of Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR) (17/03/2020)
▶https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usCXH7rxz-o

Rosita Šorytė International Observatory of Human Rights of Refugees (IOHR) ▶https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8IqLUegjT4

Alessandro Amicarelli, Attorney, European Federation for Freedom of Belief (FOB) ▶https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=py9NlpXQC9E

Willy Fautré, Human Rights Without Frontiers (HRWF)
▶https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jwSg6KhxWs


Official COVID-19 Response by Shincheonji Church of Jesus▶http://enblog.shincheonji.kr/p/coivd19-response.html

•0307 Chairman Man Hee Lee asks "all congregants to fully cooperate for disease control" in a special announcement
▶http://enblog.shincheonji.kr/2020/03/0307-chairman-man-hee-lee-asks-all.html

•0302 Statement at Press Conference of Shincheonji Church of Jesus Regarding COVID-19
▶http://enblog.shincheonji.kr/2020/03/0302-statement-at-press-conference-of.html

•0302 Regarding COVID-19 Testing of Chairman Lee, Man-hee of Shincheonji Church of Jesus
▶http://enblog.shincheonji.kr/2020/03/0302-regarding-covid-19-testing-of.html

•0301 Letter of Appeal to Political Leaders
▶http://enblog.shincheonji.kr/2020/03/0301-letter-of-appeal-to-political.html

•0228 Letter of Appeal from Shincheonji Church of Jesus in Regards to COVID-19
▶http://enblog.shincheonji.kr/2020/03/0228-letter-of-appeal-from-shincheonji.html

•0226 Shincheonji Church of Jesus Provided a List of All Members to Public Health Authorities
▶http://enblog.shincheonji.kr/2020/03/0226-shincheonji-church-of-jesus.html

•0223 Statement of Shincheonji Church of Jesus Regarding COVID-19
▶http://enblog.shincheonji.kr/2020/03/0223-statement-of-shincheonji-church-of.html

•0222 Over 1000 Shincheonji Church of Jesus Locations Disinfected and Closed Down in Korea
▶http://enblog.shincheonji.kr/2020/03/0222-over-1000-shincheonji-church-of.html

•0221 Shincheonji Church of Jesus Closed Down Its Churches and Affiliated Buildings from 18 Feb
▶http://enblog.shincheonji.kr/2020/03/0221-shincheonji-church-of-jesus-closed.html

•0220 Statement of Shincheonji Church of Jesus Regarding COVID-19 Countermeasures and Fake News
▶http://enblog.shincheonji.kr/2020/03/0220-statement-of-shincheonji-church-of.html

•0219 Statement of Shincheonji Church of Jesus Regarding the Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)
▶http://enblog.shincheonji.kr/2020/03/0219-statement-of-shincheonji-church-of.html

•0218 Notice on the Worship Service of Shincheonji Church of Jesus in Regards to COVID-19
▶http://enblog.shincheonji.kr/2020/03/0218-notice-on-worship-service-of.html

COVID-19/Fact Checker: Q&A on Shincheonji Church of Jesus Regarding the Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)▶http://enblog.shincheonji.kr/p/covid-19-fact-checker.html

Personal Blog ▶https://noahbrown1984.blogspot.com/